Have you ever wondered, how to get
your script read by producers, agents,
studios and production companies in Hollywood?
You need to draft a query letter. I can
send you my article about how to write
a persuasive query letter, or you can see
it in “How To Sell Your Screenplay” by
Joan and Lydia Wilen.
Also, draft up a phone script. Get a
copy of “The Hollywood Creative Directory.”
Then, select markets from the directory that
fit your premise. In other words, contact
producers who have produced programs and/or
movies similar to yours. Send the query letter
and make cold calls.
Utilize the script for the cold calls. Keep
it basic. From the directory, select the Director
of Development, for the calls and for the query
letters. Always address your query letter to
someone with a name and a title. The Director
of Development is in the position to put projects,
such as yours, into development. Apply the
same approach with your phone calls.
The person you first talk with on the
phone will be a “gatekeeper”, so to
speak. So, that’s the first person you
will pitch to over the phone. So,
think in terms of selling your idea
to that person. How do you do that?
Think about how that person would
benefit by passing you through the
gate to the next person. This person
will benefit by having the opportunity
to “discover” you! So, keep that in
mind.
Donald L. Vasicek
On Writing and Screenwriting
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
About Donald L. Vasicek
Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simens and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin, daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor.
Don has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 300 writers, directors, producers, actors and production companies.
He has also acted in NBC’s “Mystery of Flight 1501”, ABC’s Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Productions’ “Summer Reunion.” These activities have resulted in his involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including MGM’s $56 million “Warriors of Virtue”, Paramount Classic’s “Racing Lucifer”, American Picture’s “The Lost Heart” and “Born To Kill” starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known brother, Richard, who directed, Incline Productions, Inc.’s “Born To Win”, 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard II” starring Bruce Willis with Rennie Harlan as director, and Joel Silver as producer, Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Haunted World” with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Faces”, “Oh, The Places You Can Go” and the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” documentary film.
Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include “How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced” and “The Write Focus.” He has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festival’s e-zine, Screenwriter’s Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish), Inkwell Watch, and Ink On the Brain. Writing recognition includes Houston’s WorldFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield’s Writer’s Film Project, Writer’s Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer’s Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Guild, Inc.
Don completed producing “The Sand Creek Massacre”, a documentary film project that includes the completed and award-winning documentary short, a book, a classroom video, Interactive Media, a study guide, and a lesson plans. The film is being distributed by Films Media Group.
Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. He is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing and filmmaking company and a screenwriting volunteer on AllExperts.com.
Don’s screenwriting agent is Robin Kaver of the Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 2301
New York, NY 10036, 212-840-5751.
